Government battle tanks deployed to the area. Source: @QalaatAlMudiq/Twitter

Mohammed Aloush, a political leader of Jaish al-Islam, announced on March 21 that the group joined so-called opposition forces in the ongoing clashes against Syrian government forces in the Qabun industrial area in eastern Damascus.

Jaish al-Islam is the biggest ‘opposition’ group which has joined the so-called Astana peace talks brokered by Moscow, Ankara and Tehran and is described by Russa as a moderate opposition group. Mohammed Aloush has participated in the Astana format as a representative of the ‘moderate opposition’.

However, this has not prevented Jaish al-Islam from uniting with terrorists in their attempt to seize more areast in the countryside of the Syrian capital.

Astana is to show how moderate the Syrians and the Russians are, not the US head-chopping, heart-eating rapers.

Dejan

Russia should quit Astana talks in ghouta region bcs only strong groups in that areas are terrorists, even USA considers HTS as terrorist group

VGA

All these negotiating attempts are just to show that there is some diplomatic effort. Meanwhile the military operations are continuing on some of the fronts. So it’s mostly a smokescreen, I don’t think they legitimately thought they would strike a deal with these islamists.

They are using it to deescalate the situation on some fronts while attacking others. So the SAA+allies don’t overextend and the battered syrian airforce can contribute to specific fronts.